Service worker confessions

Like many Americans, I work in the service industry. And I, like many Americans, am treated like crap at my job by many of those to whom I provide services. It’s about time that stopped.\nA cautionary tale:\nThe other day I ordered coffee at Sugar and Spice. Behind me in line was a parent here for orientation who had the appearance of an important career man. His golf polo exuded wealth and superiority. As he flashed his white teeth and fat wallet, I sensed a snicker of class superiority. \nThen, behind Career Man, a dude of similar status entered the shop, a fatty decked out in a suit with a name tag. He addressed the worker at the coffee shop, whom he did not know, in this fashion: “Well hello, gorgeous! – Get me a coffee!” I nearly gasped at his audacity.\nAs though one assertion of bourgeois power wasn’t sufficient, Career Man turned to Suit Guy and said of the now mortified worker, “Boy, you sure got the gorgeous part right!” And then they chuckled a bourgeois chuckle: “Hum-ho-hum-hum.” \nThe entitlement of these two men, and the height and girth of their audacity pushed me to leave the establishment. In my rage, I nearly ran into one of the orientation students, for I was stumbling ahead blindly, calculating these angry sentences as I went. \nWhen a customer is rude to a service worker, the service worker can rarely retaliate or stick up for themselves. Our employers tell us, “The customer is always right.” This mantra is a coded way of saying, “You have to put up with those fools no matter what.” I’d rather not.\nThe cogs of capitalism turn because we service workers decide to show up to work. \nPoliticians often claim to stick up for small-farm owners. But agriculture makes up 0.9% of our GDP, while the service sector comprises a whopping 78%. Imagine what would happen if we could unite – despite the drastic anti-union, anti-labor sentiments that have been afoot in this country for the past few decades – and strike. The world would shut down. So what gives?\nWork would be a lot more tolerable if guys such as Career Man and Suit Guy changed their attitudes about service workers. But unfortunately, many people act like them – rich fatties and regular folk alike.\nThey get away with it because places of work are divided into the powerful and the powerless. When we enter places of employment, we unknowingly participate in the social construction of the space. In front of the deli counter, the customer has power. He can yell at the meat slicer for slicing his turkey too thin. Behind the counter, the meat slicer can’t yell back at the customer for being too picky. In front of the Sugar and Spice display case, men of privilege can evaluate the appearance of the worker behind it. Behind the case, the worker can’t retaliate.\nSo think about these power dynamics next time you’re ordering coffee, and give that worker a little respect. Just a little bit.